<p>New Delhi: Ten Opposition MPs of the Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 were suspended for a day on Friday following protests against the panel head Jagdambika Pal, who was accused of taking unilateral decisions.</p><p>Pal and other BJP MPs accused the Opposition lawmakers, particularly Trinamool Congress' Kalyan Banerjee, of "crossing all limits" and "violating all norms" and trying to disrupt the proceedings even as a delegation from Jammu and Kashmir led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief of a Hurriyat Conference faction, appeared before the panel.</p><p>Opposition MPs also submitted a joint letter to Speaker Om Birla urging him to instruct Pal to conduct proceedings in a “transparent and fair manner”. </p>.Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to appear before Parliamentary panel on Waqf Bill today.<p>While rejecting claims that they vociferously disrupted the meeting, they said in the letter that their demand for postponement of Friday’s meeting. They also said on Thursday night they were sent a revised agenda for the meeting.</p><p>There has been tension in the committee as Pal had refused to entertain a demand by the Opposition to postpone the meeting to this month-end to enable them to study the documents related to the Bill and his remarks in a media interview that the report of the committee would be adopted at a meeting on January 29.</p><p>As soon as the meeting started, the Opposition MPs protested against Pal for "steam rolling" through the proceedings and "changing the agenda of the meeting at will", leading to a brief adjournment of the proceedings.</p><p>When the committee reconvened, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey moved a motion to suspend the ten Opposition MPs attending the meeting and it was passed. The MPs who were suspended included Congress' Syed Nasir Hussain, DMK's A Raja and Mohd Abdullah, Banerjee, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Arvind Sawant.</p><p>Pal told reporters after the meeting, "I am pained at the manner in which Kalyan Banerjee created an unnecessary ruckus in the meeting by entering the Well and even hurling abuses. I think he crossed all limits today and violated all decorum."</p><p>Banerjee hit back claiming that Pal was treating opposition MPs as "domestic helps and ordering them around" while rushing through the proceedings with an eye on the Delhi elections. </p><p>BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal says that the Opposition MPs did not sign on the attendance sheet. "Without signing the attendance sheet, they created a ruckus and it was a conspiracy. They did not want Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and all to put their views."</p>
<p>New Delhi: Ten Opposition MPs of the Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 were suspended for a day on Friday following protests against the panel head Jagdambika Pal, who was accused of taking unilateral decisions.</p><p>Pal and other BJP MPs accused the Opposition lawmakers, particularly Trinamool Congress' Kalyan Banerjee, of "crossing all limits" and "violating all norms" and trying to disrupt the proceedings even as a delegation from Jammu and Kashmir led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief of a Hurriyat Conference faction, appeared before the panel.</p><p>Opposition MPs also submitted a joint letter to Speaker Om Birla urging him to instruct Pal to conduct proceedings in a “transparent and fair manner”. </p>.Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to appear before Parliamentary panel on Waqf Bill today.<p>While rejecting claims that they vociferously disrupted the meeting, they said in the letter that their demand for postponement of Friday’s meeting. They also said on Thursday night they were sent a revised agenda for the meeting.</p><p>There has been tension in the committee as Pal had refused to entertain a demand by the Opposition to postpone the meeting to this month-end to enable them to study the documents related to the Bill and his remarks in a media interview that the report of the committee would be adopted at a meeting on January 29.</p><p>As soon as the meeting started, the Opposition MPs protested against Pal for "steam rolling" through the proceedings and "changing the agenda of the meeting at will", leading to a brief adjournment of the proceedings.</p><p>When the committee reconvened, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey moved a motion to suspend the ten Opposition MPs attending the meeting and it was passed. The MPs who were suspended included Congress' Syed Nasir Hussain, DMK's A Raja and Mohd Abdullah, Banerjee, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Arvind Sawant.</p><p>Pal told reporters after the meeting, "I am pained at the manner in which Kalyan Banerjee created an unnecessary ruckus in the meeting by entering the Well and even hurling abuses. I think he crossed all limits today and violated all decorum."</p><p>Banerjee hit back claiming that Pal was treating opposition MPs as "domestic helps and ordering them around" while rushing through the proceedings with an eye on the Delhi elections. </p><p>BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal says that the Opposition MPs did not sign on the attendance sheet. "Without signing the attendance sheet, they created a ruckus and it was a conspiracy. They did not want Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and all to put their views."</p>
